Ze'ev Revach

Revach was born in Rabat, Morocco, in 1940, the eldest of eight children, and immigrated to Israel with his family in 1948, aged eight.[2] His parents named him for Ze’ev Jabotinsky and Nahum Sokolov.[1] His father was a rabbi who taught Hebrew and French at the Alliance Française school in Rabat, wrote Hebrew grammar books, and helped smuggle students to Israel through Marseille.[1][3] Revach recalled that Hebrew was spoken at home and that he arrived in Israel already fluent in the language.[3]

The family’s arrival brought an abrupt encounter with the conditions of a transit camp.[3] Revach recalled landing on a stormy winter day and sinking into mud above his knee as he walked toward the family’s tent, losing one of his polished shoes.[3] He remembered spending three months with only one shoe: “Three months I was single-shoed, and even in one shoe, I felt Israeli.”[3]

With his mother in the ninth month of pregnancy, Revach persuaded his father that the family should leave its tent for a nearby tin hut with a concrete floor.[3] He moved his mother and sisters into the hut before his father joined them; after looking around and sitting on a bed, his father told him, “Beautiful, my son, beautiful.”[3]

Revach grew up in Haifa and Jerusalem, where the family lived in the Musrara neighborhood.[1][3] His memories of Musrara included the call to prayer from nearby mosques, and he connected his sense of being at home there with Jewish tradition and his admiration for Jabotinsky.[3] As a teenager, he attended the religious agricultural boarding school in Kfar Hasidim.[4] He subsequently served in the Nahal Brigade of the Israel Defense Forces and, after his military service, studied in the inaugural class of the Beit Zvi acting school in Ramat Gan.[1]

Revach began acting professionally in the theater in the early 1960s, appearing at the Ohel Theatre before working at the Cameri Theatre.[2][5] His Cameri work from 1966 to 1973 included Leonardo in Blood Wedding, Ubu in Ubu Roi, Prince Hal in Henry IV, Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro, and Inspector Azoulai in The Inspector.[5] He also performed at the Haifa, Beersheba, and Habima theaters.[5] His dramatic repertoire included Shakespeare and Medea, in which he appeared alongside Hanna Maron.[4]

His screen career gained prominence with Hasamba and the Youth of the Wilderness (1971), in which he played gang leader Elimelech Zorkin.[6] In 1974, he appeared with Yehuda Barkan in Boaz Davidson’s Charlie and a Half, followed in 1975 by Davidson’s Snooker, also known as Celebration in the Pool Hall.[1][6] As Sasson in the former and Hacham Hanuka in the latter, Revach developed two of his signature comic roles.[1][6]

These films helped establish his association with bourekas cinema, a popular Israeli genre combining broad comedy, slapstick, and social commentary.[1][7] He frequently played Mizrahi conmen in an exaggerated comic style.[1] His comedies also featured struggling marginal characters, mistaken identities, disguises, and double roles, including twins separated at birth.[7]

Revach began directing with Just Today, also rendered as Only Today, in 1976, and usually acted in the films he directed.[1][6] His work as a writer, director, and performer included Little Shraga, Adon Leon, and Women’s Book.[5] Coming-of-Age Wounds 80 was an exception to his usual practice of appearing in his own directorial work.[6]

His films extended beyond broad comedy.[7] Little Shraga (1978), based on a play by Hillel Mittelpunkt, concerns a 17-year-old from Kiryat Shmona who becomes pregnant by one of several reservists without knowing which man is the father.[7] In Doll, also known as Buba (1987), Revach played a traumatized veteran of the Yom Kippur War who leaves his family to live in the desert.[7] The film addressed the war’s psychological and physical effects on a soldier, received a poor reception from Israeli critics, and won a prize at the Rio festival.[7]

Revach continued his stage career alongside his filmmaking.[1] In 1988, he played the title role in the successful Habima musical adaptation of Ephraim Kishon’s Sallah Shabati.[1][6] “Ach Ya Rab,” a song associated with his performance, was written for the stage adaptation rather than the original film.[6] A photograph dated October 5, 1989, records the premiere of Aba Ganuv, with Yehuda Barkan and Revach named in its title; it belongs to the Dan Hadani Archive within the Pritzker Family National Photography Collection.[8]

Revach’s later dramatic film roles earned major acting awards.[1] He won an Ophir Award for playing a soccer coach in Beitar Provence (2002), and another for his portrayal of an elderly man helping friends die with dignity in The Farewell Party (2014).[1] His later screen work also included The World Is Funny and the television series Hasamba Generation 3 and Shadow Government, the latter a political drama broadcast in 2018.[2] His last film role was in Haim Bouzaglo’s Roses Gate (2022).[1]

Outside acting, Revach was associated with Likud and appeared in the party’s election advertisements in 1992.[1] He ran on its ticket for the Ramat Gan Municipal Council in 1993, and was again listed as a council candidate in 2003, when he withdrew before the election.[1][9] In interviews, he expressed attachment to Israel alongside concern about poverty and social responsibility, arguing that the state should care for its citizens and that Jews in a Jewish state should not go hungry or lose their dignity.[10]

Revach’s honors recognized both individual performances and his wider contribution to Israeli entertainment.[1][2] He received a lifetime-achievement award at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2005 and another from the Israeli Film and Television Academy at the 2010 Ophir Awards.[2][11] Together with his two leading-actor wins, the latter brought his total to three Ophir Awards.[2] His other honors included a FIPRESCI international critics’ award and an Israeli Academy award for Buba, as well as an RTAUI award and audience-favorite recognition at the Montpellier festival for A Bit of Luck.[5]

In 2018, Revach and actress Leah Koenig were selected to light ceremonial torches at the state celebration of Israel’s 70th Independence Day.[1] The selection recognized his work as an actor, producer, comedian, and director.[1] Reflecting on the honor, Revach said, “My purpose in life is to make people happy,” and expressed the hope that he would be remembered as someone funny who made people laugh.[2] In another interview, he described laughter from a theater audience as more valuable to him than money or recognition.[10]

The continuing circulation of his films was reflected in a 2003 collection titled The Great Films of Ze’ev Revach, comprising ten video cassettes or DVDs.[12] Its titles spanned Charlie and a Half (1974), Snooker Celebration (1975), Just Today (1976), A Lot of Trouble (1976), He Who Steals from a Thief Is Exempt (1977), Mistake in the Number (1979), Mr. Leon (1982), Women’s Book (1984), The Unemployed in Tito (1987), and Twice Buskila (1998).[12]

Revach later recalled his astonishment at the affection audiences retained for the comedies, including young people who knew their monologues.[10] He defended popular comedy’s place in cinema with the observation that “a good comedy is a good comedy.”[10]

A stroke in 2019 led to rehabilitation, during which Revach hoped to return to the stage, although he did not do so.[2] He died at his home in Ramat Gan on January 18, 2025, aged 84, and was survived by his wife and five children.[1][2] His funeral took place the following day at Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv.[2]

The reception of Revach’s bourekas films involved disagreement over cultural status and ethnic representation.[1][7] Revach complained that actors of North African background did not receive deserved recognition.[11] He also recalled being offended when critics dismissed films popular with audiences.[10] Defending his stereotypical Mizrahi characters, he said that he had not intended to insult anyone: “What’s important is that the character be authentic.”[1] A 2010 critical essay interpreted his familiarity with working-class characters as a source of warmth and humanity rooted in his Musrara childhood, and argued that the film establishment favored European-influenced cinema over work associated with Mizrahi and Middle Eastern culture.[7]

Revach also faced allegations of sexual harassment and misconduct.[1][4] Police investigated him in 2006, but the prosecution closed the case for lack of evidence.[4] Further allegations were reported after a 2017 interview in which he expressed support for Moshe Ivgy and Ofek Buchris, and his selection for the 2018 Independence Day torch-lighting ceremony drew criticism connected to the allegations.[4] These were allegations and reported testimonies, not findings of guilt.[4]